U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan, D-Niles, ran in a new 13th Congressional District that included Alliance and Lexington Township and, as expected, it wasn’t even a contest.

Early Wednesday with more than 98 percent of Ohio precincts reporting, Ryan was leading his Republican challenger Marisha Agana, 52, a Warren pediatrician, 72 percent to 28 percent. He was all but assured to return to Congress for a sixth term before he even turns 40.

“I’m really excited,” said Ryan, who was celebrating with hundreds of supporters at McMenamy’s in Niles. “I hope we can continue to build on the kind of things that (Stark County’s former congressman) Ralph Regula was able to do for Northeast Ohio.”

Ryan said due to his seniority, he likely will return to the House Appropriations Committee. Hoping he can steer federal dollars to the region, he said he already has met with Alliance city officials and will discuss their economic development plans to see how they can be coordinated with other communities in the area.

Ryan acknowledged that he was the ironic beneficiary of Statehouse Republicans’ redistricting, which packed more Democrats into Ryan’s district, making other congressional districts more Republican.

“It’s unfortunate what it did to other districts, the gerrymandering,” he said.

In the end, Agana’s run as a conservative to represent a very Democratic district turned out to be quixotic. The Filipino-American raised less than $40,000 as of Sept. 30 for her campaign, a mere 4 percent of Ryan’s haul, without any help from the corporate PACs that normally give to Republicans.